Perry: Cancer agency meant for cure, commercialization

By Todd Ackerman, Eric Bergerand Peggy Fikac

Updated 1:12 am, Thursday, January 10, 2013

Legislators used noble language to tout the 2007 bill that created the state's taxpayer-funded, $3 billion assault on cancer, but Gov. Rick Perry now says creating wealth is a key mission of the cancer agency.

“The way that the Legislature intended it was to get cures into the public's arena as soon as possible and at the same time create economic avenues (from) which wealth can be created,” Perry said. “Basic research takes a long time and may or may not ever create wealth.”

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Perry made the remark in response to questions about the scrutiny CPRIT is facing as a result of two grants, totaling more than $30 million, that were awarded without proper review. The problems, both involving grants to commercialize discoveries, have prompted numerous investigations.

The governor has been championing the agency's commercialization side. In the midst of the controversy, Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus sent CPRIT a letter urging it to move beyond the research foundation already laid and expedite treatment delivery within three to five years.

Perry's comments Tuesday marked the first time the governor has publicly said creating wealth should be an important agency goal.

“We're trying to get drugs to the marketplace to help people fight the disease,” said Rep. James Keffer, R-Eastland, who co-authored a 2009 bill establishing the agency after voters authorized it two years earlier. “Our goal is not to make pharmaceutical companies any more wealthy.”

Rep. Craig Eiland, D-Galveston, who questioned the need for commercialization grants at a hearing last month, said “the market should handle the rest” if CPRIT money attracts the best cancer minds to Texas and their research proves promising.

“I believe that the purpose of the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas was to research and develop cures and treatments for cancer, not act as an investment bank or hedge fund to 'create wealth,'” Eiland said. “The state has the Emerging Technology Fund and the Enterprise Fund as business development tools.”

Legislators are expected to spend significant time this session on CPRIT: on reforms to ensure grant award procedures are followed and on establishing priorities to guide the agency as it awards up to $300 million a year.

How much to spend helping commercialize discoveries is a key question. Proponents argue that such spending is necessary to help promising discoveries bridge “the valley of death” that strands much research before pharmaceutical companies see enough evidence of potential benefit to invest.

“Generally, if you want to create more of something, you incentivize it,” Perry said. “And one of the ways you incentivize cancer cures is by allowing them to be commercialized — private companies taking them and getting them into the hands of the professionals that in turn cure cancers.”

The legislation that created CPRIT included language about commercialization. The ballot initiative did not.

One of CPRIT's visionaries said Wednesday that in emphasizing commercialization and wealth creation, Perry is attempting to change the agency's mission.

Cathy Bonner, a cancer survivor and Texas businesswoman who spearheaded the campaign to persuade the Legislature to create the agency, said the idea was to fund remarkable, out-of-the-box, trendsetting research, not to help companies secure new blockbuster drugs.

“The vision was to make Texas the center for curing cancer,” Bonner said. “It wasn't to make Texas the center for capitalizing on cancer.”

Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, who sponsored the 2007 CPRIT legislation, spoke at the time of a legacy for future generations.

“When we are all grandparents sitting in our rocking chairs, talking to our great-grandchildren, and they ask us what we did when we were legislators, we can brag that we provided the funding that found the cure for cancer,” Nelson said.

CPRIT has awarded more than $800 million in grant money since voters overwhelmingly approved it in 2007. Most of that has gone to research, but the agency is proposing spending significantly less on basic research and significantly more on clinical and translational research and on company research and development in the future.

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